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Business & Tech

East End Bakery to Supply Major Organic Grocer

Whole Foods Markets Will Carry Blue Duck Bakery Café's European Inspired Artisan Breads.

The , with locations in Southampton and Southold, has been selected by the Northeast Region of the Whole Foods Market to supply European inspired artisan breads, which will be available immediately at Whole Foods Market locations on Long Island and in Manhattan. Whole Foods Market is a leading natural and organic food retailer with locations throughout the United States.

The family-owned Blue Duck Bakery Café, operated by the Kouris Family, first opened its doors in Southampton in 1999. The bakery quickly gained popularity and recognition for its artisan breads, which are created by hand in the centuries-old tradition of European bakers. In 2008, the Kouris family opened a second location in Southold.

Blue Duck Bakery Café's breads can be found in the finest restaurants, markets and grocers throughout Long Island, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, delivered fresh seven days a week.

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Whole Foods Market will initially provide its customers with a signature line of German rye breads created by master baker Keith Kouris, a graduate of the French Culinary Institute's International Bread Baking Program. They will also have access to the entire line of the Blue Duck Bakery Café's artisan breads, including its popular Pain de Chocolat.

Kouris said that he participated in a farmer's market at one of Whole Food Market's new stores in Lake Grove about seven months ago and made quite the splash.

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"They loved our product and asked about the rye bread," he said. "I took it a step further and made up nine Old World-style artisan breads like sauerkraut rye and sunflower rye and presented them to the regional bakery department. They loved it."

Kouris said he developed the recipes himself based on different historic German breads.

"You really don't see them anywhere, but they're very delicious," he said.

Kouris added that once Blue Duck's delivery system expands he'll be able to add bakeries in Connecticut and New Jersey to his distribution roster.

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